Reciprocate
by Cloud Sage
Summary: Reciprocate: 1. to give and get reciprocally 2. to do or feel in return
1. Kakashi's chapter

Reciprocate 

A/N: This will be a two part story. I will add the second part when I finish writing it. Enjoy the first part.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Reciprocate:

1. To give or get reciprocally.

2. To do or feel in return.

There was a strange noise coming from training area three.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

As Kakashi walked near the training area he paused to listen to it. Being a ninja for so many years had left Kakashi with unusually sharp senses and an ability to distinguish between nearly identical sounds. This particular noise which he was listening to was not very unusual to hear in the training grounds. It was the sound of three kunai hitting a wooden post. What was unusual about the sound, and what caught Kakashi's attention was the force with which the kunai were being thrown at the wood.

He paused in his walking and listened more closely to the sound. After listening to the kunai hit the tall blocks of wood one more time, he was almost certain that the thrower of the kunai was his own student Sakura. After silently walking forward another few steps, his guess proved to be correct as he caught sight of her pink hair.

Sakura had not seen him yet and he carefully pondered if he should go talk to her. The unnecessary force with which the kunai were being thrown told him Sakura was very angry. Or maybe unhappy. Kakashi could easily distinguish small differences in sounds, but distinguishing small differences in emotions was not his strong point.

Kakashi studied the set of her shoulders to try to more precisely determine her current mood. This did not help him at all since Sakura was throwing the kunai so fast and with such fury that she hardly remained still.

Kakashi thought about this. There had not been any recent attacks or deaths in the village, so whatever Sakura was worked up about, it was probably a personal problem. The workings of a teenage girl's mind had never been fully understandable to Kakashi, and Sakura was no exception. It was not that he did not want to talk to her, he just never seemed to understand her. Quickly deciding that he would be no help to her he turned to walk away, but just as he was leaving he heard a loud voice call out.

Both he and Sakura turned in the direction of the voice. It was Naruto.

"Hey!" exclaimed Naruto, "There you are Kakashi!; I've been looking all over for you." Naruto ran up to Kakashi and noticed that Sakura was standing nearby. "Heyyyy" he said, drawing the word out with suspicion "Have you been training one on one with Sakura? Is that why you're late for practice today?" Naruto scowled, pointed a finger at Kakashi and said "That isn't fair! If Sakura gets one on one training, then the rest of us should get special training too, believe it!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes at Naruto's assumption and was about to respond to him, but before he could say anything he was interrupted by Sakura.

"Naruto!!" Sakura screamed, "Why do you always show up at the worst times?"

Naruto was taken aback by Sakura's unusually angry tone. "Sakura-chan…" he started to say. He did not get any further than that before Sakura threw one of the three kunai she was holding at him.

Kakashi had been expecting her to do something like this since she was so angry (or maybe upset?) and was ready for the kunai when it went sailing towards Naruto. With a movement so fast it could not be seen, Kakashi plucked the weapon out of midair, and turned to stop Sakura from attacking Naruto.

"Naruto" Kakashi called over his shoulder as he restrained the struggling Sakura, "Go and wait for me at training area seven."

"We were supposed to meet in training area eight." Naruto countered.

"Err… yeah that one" Kakashi said.

Naruto gave him a suspicious look, but ran off anyway.

Kakashi regarded the girl he was restraining thoughtfully. There was no getting out of talking to her now; he would just have to do his best to find out what was bothering her, even though delving into other people's problems was not his thing.

He let go her and cautiously asked if everything was alright. The only response he got from her was an icy stare.

"Sakura…" he said and allowed just a hint of his irritation to show, "I can't have you fighting with your teammates." He softened his tone slightly and added "If anything is bothering you I would like to help."

She continued her icy stare in his direction so Kakashi decided to try something else. He had read somewhere that females responded well to light touches. Time to test out that theory.

He slowly extended one hand and let it lightly rest on her cheek. "Please Sakura, I really do want to help you if anything is wrong."

When his hand touched her face, she seemed to be startled. She put her own hand on Kakashi's as if she could not believe it was there.

It was Kakashi's turn to be startled as the next thing Sakura did was let out a moan of despair and threw her arms around Kakashi's waist. After Kakashi got over his initial moment of surprise, he lightly wrapped his arms around her shoulders and asked "Sakura?" She started to talk hesitantly to him, punctuated by the occasional sniffle or sob.

Later, when Kakashi tried to remember what it was Sakura had told him was bothering her, he found he could not remember exactly what she had told him. What he did remember about their conversation was the last part.

After she had finished pouring out her troubles to Kakashi, she had let go of him, smiled and said "Thanks Kakashi sensei that was exactly what I needed."

He had smiled at her and said "You're quite welcome Sakura. Are you ready to start training now?"

Her response was a cheerful "Yep!" and she ran off to join her teammates.

Maybe, thought Kakashi, Sakura was not as hard to understand as he thought.


	2. Sakura's chapter

Reciprocate Part 2

Reciprocate:

1. to give or get reciprocally

2. to do or feel in return

Kakashi was late. Again. For the third time this week. His trainees were not happy with him. The usual comments were exchanged about his excessive lateness. Naruto declared that Kakashi was setting a bad example for them by being late and he should make it up to them by treating them all to ramen (believe it!). Sasuke expressed his disapproval by simply looking more sullen than usual. Sakura however, did not join in with Naruto's complaints today even though she usually did. There was something important she seemed to have forgotten and she was preoccupied with thinking about what it could be. When the other two decided someone should go look for Kakashi, she volunteered so she could continue to think on what she had forgotten.

As Sakura started to check the places where Kakashi could usually be found, she tried to remember what was so important about today. Was it a birthday? No, a couple people had just had birthdays. A holiday? No, that would have been on her calendar. An anniversary? Wait! That must be it! This was the day when one of Kakashi's teammates had died. The only reason she thought it might be today was because she remembered Lee telling her about it. Lee had been telling her enthusiastically about the many challenges Gai and Kakashi had faced off in. "But next Thursday," Lee said solemnly, "Gai never challenges Kakashi because Gai says Kakashi has his own internal challenge." Sakura had asked Lee what exactly he meant by that. Lee had gravely answered that one of Kakashi's teammates had died on that particular day.

Sakura had carefully stored away this piece of information in her memory and added it to the very small amount of facts which she knew about Kakashi. It was a wonder she and her teammates did not know more about him she thought, especially since we spend so much time together.

Now that she knew the importance of today, she knew exactly where to find Kakashi. He would be sitting in front of the memorial stone. As Sakura moved quickly through the village using her ninja skills to jump from rooftop to rooftop, she wondered why Kakashi had not mentioned to his students about this important date.

After several minutes she arrived at the edge of the field which contained the memorial stone. Here she hesitated. What should she say to Kakashi? Before she had known the reason he was late, she had been planning on letting him have a piece of her mind and telling him it was unfair to ask them to come so early if he was going to be so late.

She shook her head to clear her mind of indecision. I'll figure out what to say when I get to him, she decided. As she started to walk towards the memorial stone she could see Kakashi perched at the edge of it just like a huge bird. Or like a scarecrow, Sakura thought. From her vantage point she could easily see how his name agreed with the way the tall, thin man sat entirely still on the stone.

As she got closer to him she called out "Kakashi-sensei?" There was no reply. Sakura tried again. "Sensei?" Still no reply. By this time Sakura had reached Kakashi's side. Kakashi was crouched as still as the rock he was on, with one finger reaching out to touch a name on the grey memorial stone. Sakura stretched out a hand and waved it in front of Kakashi's face. Nothing, the man did not even blink. Sakura took a hold of his green vest and gently tugged on it "Kakashi?" she asked. Still no response.

Sakura frowned and tried to imagine what was going through Kakashi's mind. He was probably just caught up in his memories she decided. She needed to say something to him to bring him back to the present.

"Kakashi-sensei, do you remember last week?" she asked him. "How angry I was? There were a lot of things that made me unhappy that day, and I was so angry I decided I was going to miss practice. Even though I thought I was going to be angry for a long time, when you told me you wanted to help me… well, it was really nice to hear you say. Isn't that why they put us in teams together? To help each other?"

"I don't really know how to help you, but I do know you can't live in the past forever." She paused and wondered if she was saying too much. "Your team member…he is gone now. I mean" she hastily added "don't forget about him, but what about us?" This time she put both of her hands on Kakashi's arm as she pleaded "Please Kakashi, come back to us."

Not knowing what else to do, she was about to release his arm, when Kakashi slowly raised his hand that had been touching the memorial and gently put it on Sakura's head. Sakura leaned towards Kakashi and gave him a questioning look.

"You've always been the most intellectual of the three Sakura." Kakashi murmured.

He smiled at her and Sakura asked "Will you come back and start training with us now sensei?"

Kakashi moved his hand to rest on Sakura's shoulder and nodded. "Sakura?" asked Kakashi.

"Yes sensei?" she said.

"Thank you."

"Well Kakashi," she said with a smile "I was just reciprocating."


End file.
